23 January 2011

Day 382: St Helena to Salvador, Brazil – 23/01/11

I sleep when I am supposed to and am in a deep sleep when Mike wakes me and I find it very hard to come to.  Still, rather that than tossing and turning for ages.  The sunrise is glorious – a huge ball of fire which then disappears behind a thick wall of cloud – again.

P1060106 P1060108 Photos:  The sun rises gloriously but disappears behind the clouds

We make decent progress during the night with our reefed main and genoa, not fast but safe – we don’t like dramas at sea and have thankfully stood on the sidelines while other boats have had those.  We just get malfunctioning equipment.  Talking of which, the freezer is definitely not working.  I could scream.

When Mike gets up I sort out the best stuff from the freezer (which is now stuffed with towels to try to keep things as cold as possible) like fillet steak and the freshly caught tuna and wahoo (courtesy of Joe from Brown Eyed Girl) and pack it at the back of the fridge.  Mike has turned the fridge temperature right down and it has been freezing the stuff at the back for days so he figured it would keep some of our frozen stuff, frozen.  However, we will take no chances and eat like kings for a few days.  I will have a chicken curry cookathon once that starts to defrost.

I go down for my morning sleep and wake to find the usual clouds starting to burn away.  We have some of our wonderful tuna for lunch then Mike heads down for his sleep.  My afternoon is spent reading, fiddling with the sails (yes I move them from one side to both sides then back to one side as the wind shifts around) and very late in the afternoon, lying in the sun while Mike gets his sextant out and takes readings from it.

P1060109 Photo:  Mike playing with his sextant

The wind is variable for most of the day but OK overall.  I wish it would be a little more consistent and just a bit more of it although I suspect those words will come back to haunt me next time it’s blowing a force 8 gale!

The decision on what to have for dinner is made by rummaging around in the back of the fridge and the freezer to discover what feels the softest then I think about what to do with it.  Consequently, tonight it is meatballs and salad (while we still have some fresh stuff).  In a couple of days it will just be cabbage with everything.

 

Our position is:  15 deg 48 min S, 09 deg 02 min W

Distance so far:  20448 nautical miles

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